Five bank bosses are paying the price for the £500bn taxpayer bail-out, which looks likely to leave the government with major stakes in Royal Bank of Scotland and the combined Lloyds TSB-HBOS.

But the taxpayer was immediately facing up to losses of around £1.5bn on the proposed investments after share price falls in the banks yesterday. There was speculation about sweeping changes to bank boardrooms in the months ahead as the government attempts to wield its influence over the ailing industry.

Dramatic changes to the way RBS is run were signalled by the departure of Sir Fred Goodwin, chief executive for nine years. He refused to take any personal blame for the unprecedented £20bn investment needed in the Edinburgh-based bank, but was "sad" at his departure. He is "waiving" his entitlement to a £1.2m payout. His replacement, Stephen Hester, currently chief executive of British Land, is known for overhauling Abbey National and shutting down its wholesale bank before it was sold to Santander.

Johnny Cameron, the RBS boardroom executive with responsibility for the investment banking operation likely to be targeted by Hester, is also leaving the board. The RBS chairman, Sir Tom McKillop, will leave after the annual meeting next April by which time the taxpayer could own 60% of the shares.

At HBOS, which is in the throes of being rescued by Lloyds TSB, chairman Lord Stevenson and chief executive Andy Hornby will go once the deal is completed. Until the weekend, Lloyds had said it would offer Hornby a place on the combined board, and gave no explanation for his sudden departure. Hornby, who has been chief executive of HBOS for two years, also gave up his pay-off of around £1m.

A series of coordinated announcements were made yesterday after tough meetings that had gone on into the early hours of the morning. Officials from the Treasury and the Financial Services Authority extracted terms for the fund raising from the four most troubled banks - HBOS, RBS, Lloyds and Barclays. The banks also promised not to pay bonuses this year, and pay next year's bonuses in shares. McKillop insisted that RBS had already made the decision not to pay bonuses this year.

Three banks are using the government's new Bank Reconstruction Fund:

· RBS is raising a total of £20bn - £15bn through a share placing at 65.5p a share, and £5bn in preference shares;

· HBOS is placing £8.5bn of shares with the government at 113.6p a share, and £3bn of preference shares;

· Lloyds TSB is raising £4.5bn through a share issue priced at 173.3p, and £1bn in preference shares.

Five financial firms are avoiding direct government help:

· Barclays is raising a total of £6.5bn by issuing £3bn of preference shares, and raising £600m as a result of the acquisition of Lehman Brothers and a further £3bn in a share-placing after the full year 2008 figures;

· HSBC is bolstering its UK bank with £750m of its own resources;

· Standard Chartered is not intending to boost its capital cushion;

· Abbey is receiving a £1bn capital injection from its Spanish parent, Santander;

The capital injection into HBOS meant that the terms of the Lloyds TSB deal were hastily renegotiated overnight. Lloyds is now giving HBOS shareholders 0.605 of each of its shares, instead of the 0.833 announced three weeks ago. The fall in HBOS' shares by 23p to 97p and Lloyds to 162p left the taxpayer with potential losses from the capital injection. RBS shares ended at 65.7p, in line with the price at which the government is buying in.

Eric Daniels, Lloyds TSB chief executive, said the capital the FSA was demanding the banks keep was intended to make them "bullet proof". "We are seeing fairly dramatic over-capitalisation of the banks," said Daniels, who will be chief executive of the combined Lloyds TSB-HBOS, of which the taxpayer could own 43.5%.

Barclays said it could turn to private investors to meet the government's demand to raise fresh capital. But in a clear warning to the bank if it failed to find the funds it needed, the government inserted a line in the official statement saying its support "may be on less favourable terms than those made available today".

The intervention creates challenges for big City investors. The Association of British Insurers said: "This will require a new relationship between long-term shareholders and the government as a significant and new provider of capital. We will need to work out how best to handle this effectively." Legal & General, the fund management firm, had criticised bank bosses for not quitting voluntarily, and said: "Where there've been management changes, we believe this is appropriate, reflecting required accountability."

Architects of the plan

Tom Scholar

A former aide to Gordon Brown, Scholar has handled the Bradford & Bingley nationalisation and sale of its assets to Abbey owner, Banco Santander. For the last two weeks he has masterminded the rescue plan as the Treasury's head of finance.

Paul Myners

The new City minister, a former hedge fund boss and chairman of Marks & Spencer, is understood to have browbeaten the bosses of Lloyds TSB, HBOS and Royal Bank of Scotland until after 2am when the agreement was sealed. Myners imposed the 12% interest on government loans to the banks.

Lord Adair Turner

The chairman of the Financial Services Authority has a mandate to get tough with banks and City institutions. A former head of the CBI, he set the amounts of new capital the banks needed to qualify for the bail-out and ensure they can survive any future shocks.

John Kingman

A battle-hardened Whitehall operator, Kingman is second in command at the Treasury. He was at the heart of discussions over the fate of Northern Rock and two weeks ago he was drafted in to support Scholar during tense negotiations with the banks.